I started tatting November 1, 2007, and Matilda joined in on May 21, 2012.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Just A Bit - JAB

I enjoy when fellow bloggers show me just a bit - jab- of what they are currently working on. So here is my jab.

It will be the most time consuming piece I've done to date, and I'll explain why ...... I mean it is by no means something huge, like Clyde's heriloom piece (check out his progress, I'm in awe) but it has taken up all of my "spare time" for about 2 weeks. Of course that's not saying much since the gym litterly takes up 2+ hours of my free time each time I go, but I figure if my dh wants me to waste my precious time going to the gym then let the house work pile up :-)

Anyway back to what this is really about, tatting and why this will be my most time consuming piece...........

So I decided I would test tat part of this in plain white thread before I trusted myself to use my good HDT. I found I was able to understand the pattern and the test portion came out perfectly. Okay good onto the fun thread. Well wouldn't you know after a couple days of tatting, I found I messed up the pattern ....... at the beginning! Now this wasn't a cut out and try to salvage days of work type of mess up, it was consistantly doing it wrong mess up. I was so mad at myself that I ended up just throwing the piece away. I tried to calm myself and started the piece over. A couple of days later I became concerned that I may not have enough of this particular HDT left and what if I ran out????, so I took it out of the grabage (thankfully it was in my craft room garbage and no food or anything like that goes in there) and reverse tatted (sounds better than untatted, right?) as much as I could in order to be able to reuse the thread. Now how stupid is that?!?!? I know I know it was a ton of work to reverse tat it all, but the thread is sooo beautiful I hated to waste it!!

Oh and did you see that Handy Hands Tatting is having 15% off any order placed now thru Monday May 28th, Memorial Day? The coupon code is 528. If you're one of their newsletter subscribers be sure to use the free shipping code also. I thought the shipping coupon could only be used once and of course I used it right away, so I'd trashed that info. However Barb was nice enough to send it to me again. Thank you, Barb! I won't include the free shipping code here because it's not fair, but by all means use that 15% off. I'm all about books for this order. I've got to get Tatting Patterns by Lyn Mortonand Tatting With Visual Patterns By Mary Konior. I'm also thinking about getting Tatting The GR-8 Self Closing Mock Ring by The Shuttle Brothers. Is there any other ones that you recommend?

8 comments:

I've done the same thing with my HDT... that's why I'm using Altin Basak right now... I'm not quite as upset when I tat the whole thing wrong! Yes, I've started Stella Apina over again. I would have had to untat 3/4 of what I'd completed. Now I'm at the point where I've untatted the same section three times, and to make it worse, I made the same mistake each time!

Have fun shopping at Handy Hands! I have two copies of the Shuttle Brothers book... want one? I love Nina Libin's Beanile Lace (I think that's the title). She takes you through basic tatting steps, and all of her tatting exercises gently lead you into beaded tatting. I really should get back to that one! I also love Mary Maynard's Tatting Rings of Flowers... simple pieces that stretch my imagination and use up bits left on shuttles!

Sounds like you got some great books I have all of those and I love them. I wish I was in a position to take advantage of that sale I love Handy Hands Tatting. Barb is always so nice to order from and dependable, too.

Sorry you had to unpick all that tatting I hope it didn't make your thread too fuzzy and that the rest of the piece will look okay. That is a LOT of work.

The colors look really good. What sort of HDT did you use? Iam looking forward to the rest of the picture.Thanks for sharing that teeny tiny bit of a pic...LOL.

I love both those books...sugestions? Well, I am not sure if you already have Rebecca Jones' the Complete Book of Tatting, that's quite a good basic book, and Blomqvist and Persson's book Tatting, patterns and design, which is a classic.

sorry about all that reverse tatting. That's a shame, but the thread is too great to be wasted. I hope it works out for you. I agree with Snowy about the Blomqvist and Persson's book. She turned me on to that one and I love it.

LOL Bonnie! This blog is a hoot! I love the jab! Whatever it is, it will be fantastic! And good for you for not giving up! I can't tell you how much time I've spent reverse tatting.And if that is the thread I think it is...I won't let you run out!

Congratulations on taking on a large project. I know it can be intimidating but just plug away at it a bit at a time and before you know it you will be finished. Sorry to hear about your re-tatting if I make a mistake like that I usually try to make something else out of it. I detest retro-tatting. I am looking forward to seeing your finished project.